Royal Crush: Baseball Tops Port Jeff

April 19, 2018

Tim Wozny goes airborne earlier this season (PC: Bruce Jeffrey)

Yesterday afternoon the baseball team topped Port Jeff, 15-9, to improve to 6-3 on the season. The Blue and White bats tagged Royal pitchers for 17 hits and three 4-run innings in scoring their second-most runs of the year.

It was a decidedly different game than the Bears’ 6-3 win over Port Jeff on March 27th, but the Bears found enough offense to fend off their feisty hosts, grabbing control early with two runs in the top of the first. Aidan Mega drew a 1-out walk, Joe Wozny followed with a single, and each came around to score without the benefit of a hit as Mega stole third base, Wozny stole second, and both trotted home on wild pitches.

After two scoreless innings of work from Seamus Scanlon, the Bears added to their lead with a 4-run third inning. Mega’s first of four hits on the day plated Scanlon, who singled. Joe Wozny followed with a triple that chased home Mega for a 4-0 lead. Tim Wozny singled in his brother. 5-0. Emman Ajewole followed with a double that put the younger Wozny on third and David Choi gave the Brook a 6-0 edge with a single to the right side. The Port Jeff bats woke up in the bottom half of the inning, erupting for five runs to trim their deficit to 6-5.

With the momentum firmly in the home dugout, the Bears responded with a huge 4-run inning in the top of the fourth, all coming with two outs. A fly out and a pop up signaled a potential easy inning for the Royal defense, but the Bears rallied. Mega singled, Joe Wozny drew an intentional walk, and Tim Wozny made the Royals pay with a single to right center that scored Mega. 7-5. Ajewole followed with a double that pushed the Bear advantage to 8-5. Two wild pitches scored Tim Wozny and Ajewole as the Bear lead swelled back to 10-5. Port Jeff put together their own 2-out rally in the bottom of the inning, but mustered only a run to trail 10-6 after four.

After a scoreless fifth for the Brook, the Royals carved into their deficit with a run in the bottom of the inning, to trail 10-7, but the Bears finally put the game out of reach with four more runs in the top of the 6th. Mega singled to lead off the inning, moved to second on an error, stole third, and scampered home on a wild pitch. Joe Wozny also scored on a wild pitch, Tim Wozny scored on a Choi single, and Ajewole scored on a wild pitch. When the dust cleared the Bears held a 14-7 edge. The Royals got two back in the bottom of the inning, and added another in the bottom of the 7th. The Bears scored their final run in the 7th on a Joe Wozny double that pushed home Mega, who was all over the basepaths yesterday.

The Wozny boys and Choi each registered 2 RBIs, while Mega, the Woznys, and Ajewole combined for 13 hits to power the lineup. Scanlon got the win with 4 strikeouts over 5.0 innings and Ajewole did a fine job in two innings of relief.